Do people who don't know Jesus have access to Heaven?

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ballin said:
Just to play devil’s advocate on my own position, it is possible for someone to say against my statement that someone who did reject the grace to join the Catholic Church, might regret the rejection on his deathbed and therefore be forgiven. This I think is a valid objection.

Or, someone could say that God simply decided that the specific person did not require the Graces obtained with the privilege of being Catholic to live a moral life and therefore never gave them any special grace to join the church in the first place. This too seems reasonable since there were plenty of Old Testament folks who lived moral lives and waited in Limbo for Christ’s salvific grace.

So yea, in case you thought I meant my position as infallible, those objections above should show why my opinion might be wrong 🙂
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I wasn’t trying to attack your opinion, I know it’s a valid one. And I strongly believe that it is only by God’s grace that I did enter the church. I was just trying to say not everyone else has a chance necessarily. Anyway, I suppose that at the end of the day it is up to God and His love. Though I do have the belief that all have a chance for heaven, at the end of the day I just must know that God will care for His children. This thread actually is inspiring me to not worry so much about who might not get to know, but get out there and tell others the good news, so that they will know. Thank you.
 
thistle said:
The Church clearly teaches there is no salvation outside the Catholic Church. That is an infallible teaching.

Who can be saved?

The Church teaching:
  • Baptism is necessary for salvation (but does not ensure it as you must die in a state of grace).
  • There is no salvation outside the Catholic Church.
So how can you be baptised and Catholic/deemed to be Catholic? There are 4 ways:
  • Sacramental Baptism as a Catholic
  • Baptism of Blood (non-Catholic dying for the Catholic Faith)
  • Baptism of Desire - Explicit (e.g. a catechumen going through RCIA)
  • Baptism of Desire - Implicit (invincible ignorance which means those who through no fault of their own do not know Christ, His Gospel, or His Church but still live a life according to the teachings of Christ in that ignorance)
You can debate who may or may not be included under invincible ignorance but outside the above 4 there is no salvation.

Not all Catholics go to Heaven but everyone in Heaven is Catholic.
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Nonsense.
 
thistle said:
Which parts are “nonsense” and what is your evidence to support your assertion?
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For one thing, when you said “There is no salvation outside the Catholic Church.” Because I believe the original statement is, “There is no salvation outside the Church”. To add the word “Catholic” there sounds of triumphalism. We know where the Church is, we do not know where it is not.
 
ConstantineTG said:
For one thing, when you said “There is no salvation outside the Catholic Church.” Because I believe the original statement is, “There is no salvation outside the Church”. To add the word “Catholic” there sounds of triumphalism. We know where the Church is, we do not know where it is not.
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The Church is the Catholic Church, plain and simple. The verb “subsists in” in the Vatican II documents doesn’t change this identification one whit. There is only one Faith, one Baptism, and it is Catholic.

“I believe in the Holy Ghost, the Holy Catholic Church, the communion of Saints…”
  • PAX
 
ConstantineTG said:
For one thing, when you said “There is no salvation outside the Catholic Church.” Because I believe the original statement is, “There is no salvation outside the Church”. To add the word “Catholic” there sounds of triumphalism. We know where the Church is, we do not know where it is not.
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As EcceAgnusDei has stated, the Church IS The Catholic Church. It is not any other Church.
 
Safia said:
This tract here on CA should help answer your questions!

The answer is yes, absolutely, but it’s a much tougher road – Catholics can get to Heaven in a spaceship, non-Catholics via a motorcycle. (Big difference, eh? :D)
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I disagree with that analogy. All persons, Catholic or otherwise, get into heaven via the sacrifice of Christ on the Cross. There is no special method for Catholics as opposed to non-Catholics, it’s the same for everybody.
 
Meggie18 said:
I am extremely worried by the following question. It might be obvious to some of you, but I read a book recently that made me wonder. Do non-Christians go to heaven? Yes. For example, if someone has never really considered Jesus to be God because they weren’t taught well, or if someone is an agnostic, what happens? Do they have access to Heaven? Yes. What about the sentence: “Jesus is the only way to get to Heaven”? (I don’t exactly remember where it’s from, but I’ve often hard it). Yes.

Thank you!

Meggie
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I beleive that if you beleive in Jesus,and beleive in what the BIBLE says,and you tell Jesus you LOVE him,I know that Jesus hears your prays. I beleive that Jesus accessed to Heavan,and bye the way, Jesus did died to save us all, thats why he, said " I came to save all sinners". :angel1::angel1:
 
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